Shopping for LEGO on BrickLink

If you are searching for specific LEGO parts, discontinued sets, or rare minifigures, there is no better place to shop than BrickLink! BrickLink is the biggest online marketplace for LEGO buyers and sellers from around the globe. Here I will give you an overviewabout LEGO shopping on BrickLink so you become familiar with the process. 🙂

BrickLink is very much like eBay; individual sellers set up shop, and you can browse their selections for the items you want. BrickLink however does not have an auction feature. All items are listed for a fixed price, until they are sold. For some sellers their BrickLink shop is their full-time business. They have huge selections of parts and sets, and employees to take care of every detail of the business. Others are small hobby stores, run by individuals who may sell extra LEGO sets, part and minifigures from their own collection. Their strength is often the unique and rare parts they offer, and the great personal attention they can give to your order. Below is the process to start shopping on BrickLink.

➡ REGISTRATION: To start LEGO shopping on BrickLink first you need to register. Although you can certainly browse around the site without registering, by becoming a member, you will be able to buy items, view orders you placed and add items you are looking for into your wanted list (an important feature!). Registration is easy and free. You can register here: REGISTER (Please note that you must be at least 18-ears-old to register.)

➡ FINDING ITEMS: The best way to find items is to look thru the BrickLink Catalog. Here you can find LEGO Sets, individual Parts, Minifigs, Books, Gear (this section includes LEGO related merchandise like T-shirts, keychains, pens, gift items, etc.), and LEGO Catalogs. You can also search for the newest items released and added to the Catalog, and much more. You can also find custom items like custom capes, stickers and special parts here: Custom Items for Sale

Once you click on a category, you can search by various subcategories like themes, year released, etc. You can also search for elements by color: BrickLink Color Guide.The BrickLink Catalog is incredibly robust and extensive, all done by the endless hard work of volunteers. It is really worth spending some time and studying how it is organized. Once you get a hang of it you will be amazed! It is truly a LEGO-fans dream!

Another nice feature of Bricklink is the Price Guide. It is available from each items page. It will list all the sellers who have that particular item for sale, as well as the prices, and also how many times and for how much the items has sold for in the past six months. You can learn a lot here about prices!

➡ NEW OR USED?: On Bricklink you can find both new and used parts, sets, etc. If you don’t mind a few scratches on a part or dings on a LEGO box, you would probably be happy with used. On used items sellers often make additional notes, like “excellent condition”, “light playwear”, “discolored”, etc. Always read these notes so you know what you are getting!

➡ WANTED LIST: If you are looking for more than one item, the best way to shop is to put all the items you want in your Wanted List. (Under each item’s page there is a link to add it to your wanted list.) You can create more than one Wanted List, if you are working on several projects.

Once you have all the items you want, you can check to see which shops have all of them. If the items you are looking for are fairly common, you should be able to find everything you want in one shop. If you have a more extensive wanted list, with rare items, you may need to shop at more than one store. In my experience you can find everything needed for a project in 1-5 shops.

➡ SELLER’S TERMS, POLICIES & FEEDBACK: Once you have found a store that has all the items you want, make sure you check their Store Terms. This will include their shipping and payment policies and any additional information that you would need to know before placing an order. It is also a good idea to check the seller’s feedback. This will give you an indication of the seller’s reputation and experience. I would recommend buying from a seller who has at least 50 positive transactions as a seller.

➡ QUESTIONS: If you have any questions about the seller’s terms, policies, products, etc., you should ask them before placing an order. As once your order is placed you are in a binding contract according to Bricklink’s policies. So just ask before to stay on the good side of sellers.

➡ CHECKOUT: If you are satisfied with everything, hit the Checkout button. You will be able to choose your preferred payment method from the choices the seller offers. You will also be able to choose your shipping preferences. I would recommend requesting a tracking number so that you can easily track your package (a lot of sellers will automatically include this with no charge, or for a small fee, depending on their policies.) If your order is larger, you may also request insurance in case something happens to your package en route.

➡ INVOICING: Once you check out, the seller will get a notification that you have placed an order. They will prepare your order, calculate your shipping fees and send you an invoice with details of how to send payment. You should receive an invoice within a couple of days (unless the seller stated otherwise in their terms).

➡ PAYMENT: Once you receive your invoice, check to make sure everything is okay. If all looks good send payment as soon as possible. (Most sellers will state in their policies how many days you have to paying.)

➡ SHIPPING: The seller will ship your order according to your specifications. The carrier’s website can give you an indication of how long should it take for your package to arrive. In my experience this is pretty reliable. If you have ordered from a seller outside of your country, expect some delays due to longer transit time and customs procedures.

➡ ARRIVAL: Once you receive your package, it is a good idea to look through it to make sure everything is there. (In the LEGO business seller’s have to deal with a lot of tiny pieces, so sometimes mistakes can happen.) If there is something wrong with your order contact the seller immediately to work out the problem.

➡ FEEDBACK: Leave feedback to your seller to let them know they did a good job! This will also help other buyers to feel comfortable shopping at a particular store. You can also put the seller on your favorite sellers list, so you can easily find them later when you are ready for some more LEGO shopping. And if you ran into any problems that you were not able to work out with the seller, you may leave neutral or negative feedback as well. This will alert other buyers to potential problems with a particular seller. The seller will also leave you feedback on your order. Honest feedback is the heart and soul of a great online community!

Talking about online community, another of BrickLink’s greatest asset is its members. If you ever run into any problems, have any questions, want to share your LEGO creations or make friends, check out the BrickLink Forum! It is an extremely lively gathering of very knowledgeable LEGO fans. And the chatter goes on 24/7! You are guaranteed to get a response fast. And you are also welcome to ask any questions here. I’m a Bricklink-junkie spending way too much time and money over there! And I also run a small shop you are welcome to visit: Sunshine State Bricks. Happy shoppin’! 😀

The best way to shop on Bricklink is to ad the items you are interested in to your Wanted List. Once you have several items on your Wanted List, you can click on the “By Shop” tab and you will get a list of all the stores that have the items you are looking for. Some of them may have all of it, and some may have some of it, but in either case it will be very clear.

In addition, if you are working on more than one project, you can create more than one Wanted Lists, and choose if you want to check stores for everything you are looking for, or just for one of your projects.

Also, in your Wanted List thereis a Quiery by Shop checkmark that you can use to quickly check the avalability of just a few items from your Wanted List.

Hi Im am looking to set-up a brinklink store; are there any resource that you know of that might guide me in setting up an efficient shop? Are there any listing strategy’s, inventory management protocols, recommended storage bins or shipping supply’s that you could recommend? How much of an area will this require?

I have aquired legos from yard sales and estate auctions, I have about
3 bins or 140+ lbs, along with loads of instructions and boxes, I haves started to separate into colors and small parts, and separate base plates, mini-figures and accessories ect, I have a mail order record shop and wouldn’t mind listing bricks if it could be done quickly.

James, I’m planning to write a full guide on selling LEGO both on eBay and on Bricklink. But for now here are some pointers:

STORAGE: I would suggest to keep it simple for now as you may or may not continue selling LEGO as a business. Not everyone is cut out for inventorying, packing and shipping thousands of tiny pieces of plastic. It is hard work.
A combination of plastic shoe-boxes you can pick up at dollar-stores and quarter-gallon ziplock bags (to separate parts inside the shoe-boxes) should be just fine for your current inventory. This way once you sell your current stock you can easily get out of this venture, or you can build on your current system to expand your store.
The shoe-box / plastic bag combination works very well for a small to medium size store. You can easily store and quickly pull your inventory. Once thing I suggest is that you organize your inventory and label your boxes according to the Bricklink Catalog system. This way you can find parts easily.
You may also want to invest (if you don’t have this already) a simple shelving system to store the shoe-boxes. My guestimate is that 140 pounds of LEGO would fit inside about 40-50 shoe-boxes, nicely separated.

FEEDBACK: I highly recommend building up some feedback before opening your store. Place a few orders (about 10 is a good number) to start your BL career. People are very hesitant to buy from shops with zero feedback – BL had seen lots of fraudsters in this area. Also, placing a few orders will familiarize you with the order placing, processing, and shipping procedure, so you know exactly what your buyers go through. You will also see how other sellers pack, ship and process their orders.
If there is absolutely nothing you want to buy on BL, at least introduce your store in the BL Forum. Tell a little about yourself, why you opened your store, who you are, etc. This is a good idea even if you do build up your feedback. Although international, BL is also a tight community and saying “hi” is a good idea.

KEEP USED & NEW PARTS SEPARATE: Also note any blemishes or other noteworthy qualities on used parts in the description of each item. BL buyers are very sensitive to this area. They want their new bricks to be new and shiny, and they want to be very clear what they are getting when the item is used. There is definitely a market for dirty, faded, bite-marked, etc. parts as people are looking for them, but you should make these clear in the listing.
Also, pack new and used parts in separate ziplock baggies when shipping.

SETTING UP YOUR TERMS & SPLASH PAGE: The splash page is not essential. Some stores put fancy graphics there as an entry to their stores. By default this page will simply be a copy of your terms page, which is highly important. This is where you will list your shipping fees, processing time, terms, policies, etc. I would suggest to check the terms pages of some of the large stores and just copy what they do. As a pointer I would say to keep it short and sweet, but also clear. BL buyers are very sensitive to shipping/handling fees. They want to know clearly what to expect. Exact shipping and around 50 cents to a $1.00 packaging/handling fee is pretty much a norm.

PRICE GUIDE: BL’s price guide is excellent! You can use this to set your own prices. This is easily available while you are listing your items. If you want to sell quickly you would want to set your prices at the lower end. If you don’t mind some delay in selling everything and would like to make a bit more money the median price is a good thing to go by.

SHIPPING: You can ship in small boxes or padded envelopes (available at office supply stores or Wal-Mart). Never ship in regular unpadded envelopes! The sorting machines will rip them apart. Do not dump all parts into the envelope. Separate them into a few small ziplock baggies (available at hobby stores and Wal-Mart).
You need to decide if you want to ship domestically only, or would take international orders as well. You may want to start domestic only, then add international as you get more comfortable.

ACCEPT PAYPAL: This is what most users use. You can also ad other payments methods as you see fit.

WANTED-LIST NOTIFICATIONS: Once you start to ad inventory to your store send out wanted list notifications. This is automatically set up by BL, all you have to do is push a button. This is an extremely useful feature that will notify buyers when an item is available.

COLORS: Be very careful to list your parts in the correct color. The reason why people shop at BL is because they can get exactly what they want. Expect negative reactions if your colors are not listed correctly. Pay special attention to old-brown and the new-reddish-brown, old-light-gray and new-bluish-light-gray, and old-dark-gray and new-bluish-dark-gray. There is an excellent color guide on BL.

BE READY FOR ORDERS: I have seen this time and time again; new store opens up, gets flooded with orders, the seller freaks out and they can’t keep up! As a new store you will probably have a lot of items buyers are looking for. You can easily expect 10-50 orders a day for your first month. That’s a lot of orders to pack. I highly recommend to be ready with enough shipping supplies and time to pack. Also, you can close your store from time to time (easily done with a button) to keep up with orders, rather than having delays and a bunch of frustrated customers. And always stay in communication with your customers. In a community-based website like BL this is highly important. People are understanding as long as you stay in communication, if not, your reputation will be all over the BL Forum.

FEES: There is no listing fee on BL. You can keep items in your store as long as you want, or as long as they sell. You only pay fees when your items sell. Fees are a flat 3% on all orders (only on the merchandise part – not shipping or fees). Selling fees are billed to you by BL once a month, and you pay them with PayPal at your earliest convenience.

TIME-FRAME TO SELL YOUR INVENTORY: How long will it take to clear your 140 pounds of LEGO? Of course it depends on what you have and on pricing, but I would say expect a year or two. Some parts will move fast, some will take forever. I would suggest that once you are down to a smaller inventory that just doesn’t want to move, dump the whole thing on eBay, or offer it as a bulk-lot on the BL Forum.
And if at any time you get tired of selling you can always offer to sell your whole store. Someone will buy it, but don’t expect much money. These will be resellers who want to turn a profit.
Or if you love the experience and would like to continue running a BL store, add new inventory regularly. More inventory = more buyers = more stuff to move = more money coming in.

SUMMARY: Selling on BL is fun and can be profitable, but it is also a lot of hard work. Dealing with tiny parts, and customers who get very cranky if they don’t get what they ordered in the exact color and exact quantity, can get on your nerves. Always provide professional customer service, be ready to apologize if you make a mistake, communicate with your customers and ask questions on the BL Forum. Lots of very knowledgeable old-timers there.

Wow great pointers thanks! for right now it is on the back burner, I acquire estates regularly and started a discogs account to sell the vinyl records I had acquired part-time and it is on track to outpace my full time job soon, and am entertaining the idea of renting a small commercial spot and start full-time selling online , I am interested in the BL site as it is a similar process to what I am doing now. Do you do this full-time, do you have any employee’ s ? Again thanks for the detailed and timely response .

James, I think you will be very happy with BL as an outlet for your LEGO stash! (:
Currently I just run a small hobby-shop on BL to feed my LEGO habit. I did sell off a good amount in the past though – about the same size as yours, maybe little larger. I never had any employees. Just me. But at times I have considered it.
I run an other business, also online, but I can do that by myself.
Right now I just buy LEGO sets then sell the parts from it I don’t want, breaking even at the end. Which is great – otherwise LEGO can become an expensive hobby! 8)

I’m sorry to say, but you need to be at 18-years-old to register on Bricklink. This is because a Bricklink-order is a legally binding contract. In most countries you cannot get into a legally binding contract if you are not yet considered an adult. However you may ask a parent or other adult to shop on your behalf.

And yes, Bricklink is a very safe place to shop. I have personally placed over 270 orders and never had a problem. Just make sure you always check the seller’s feedback. 😉

Thank you so much!
I didnt have a clue about the selling part on BL until now but i have bought of BL many times. I love the place. I get alot of sets brand new but without the minifigures for nearly half the price! I am 16 and thinking of selling Legos on BL to make a bit of money. I wont do worldwide though, i will just do my country. I have made custom minifigures that i think are really good. I have sold them to a few friends, cousins ect. I really want to move this forward. Please take time to see my site. What are your views on this?

I’m glad you had some succesful purchases on BL, but please note that you have to be 18 to be member there (both buying and selling). I hope your account is under an adult’s supervision, otherwise if members find out you are only 16, your account will be suspended immediately. 😐

As far as selling on BL, again; you have to be 18 to sell there. But if you can have an adult run your store, then it can be done. It is a good idea to start out selling in your country first before expanding internationally. Lot less trouble with losts packages and chargebacks. I would also add though that BL is not the best place to sell custom minifigures. The site is set up mainly for official LEGO items. Although customs are allowed, they don’t sell well. You would have more success on eBay, and on your own website. eBay would be a great place to sell some of your customs as you will get a lot of traffic. The fees are high though. But once you start selling, you can let your buyers know that you have your own website with more custom minifigures. At least that is how I would do it. 😉

Also, make sure you show your customs on Flickr and MOCPages. Flick is one of the largest pictures sharing sites, and it has a huge and very active LEGO community, and MOCPages is all about LEGO. These are the best places to get the word out about your customs. Hope this helps some! Wishing you the best with your endeavors! 🙂

Mathieu, when you are on your Wanted List screen look in the row of green tabs on top of the page. In the second row you will see a button called “By Shop”. Click on that. It will list all the shops that have the items in your wanted list. 😉

I looked on ebay and bricklink for Market Street modular houses set.The lowest possible price to buy is $600, a very high price for a set that originally was sold for $100.Where can I find this set for a good price?

Konstantin, the short answer is you won’t find it for a better price. With discontinued and limited number sets you simply can’t think about the original price. It is all about supply and demand. In regards to Market Street, you would be VERY LUCKY to find it for $600. The $600 price range is most likely used with some issues (missing instructions, box, missing a few pieces, built and displayed for some time, etc.)

A good option with discontinued sets could be just to get the instrutions and build it yourself by buying the parts, but unfortunately this is not true for Market Street. It has very special colors and some special parts, and you will pay thru the nose for those, defeating the whole purpose. I have read numerous times that people tried to go this route and ended up paying the same as if they would have bought the whole set.

Market Street is actually not the greatest set, compared to the other modulars. In fact it was on sale for quite a while before the whole modular series started. The reason it is so desirable now because collectors feel the urge to complete their collection. Many of them cave in to the pressure and just pay the price for the satisfaction of owning an iconic set that started it all. Others just give up on it an decide to move forward, focusing on collecting the new sets, which have a lot more detail and better design overall.

Konstantin, I’m not sure what you mean. As I have mentioned in the description BrickLink is a collection of individual stores. It is like a big marketplace for LEGO. All the stores have their own terms and policies. But I have never heard of a store that would charge individual shipping for pieces. You go to the store, pick them items you want, the seller will send you an invoice and you pay. 😉

Harry, what do you mean by safety? Shopper safety? Seller safety? Payment safety? Please clarify what you mean so I can help you better. But to summerize; so far I have had almost 700 transactions on BrickLink (about 300 as a buyer and 400 as a seller) and never had a problem. 😉

Yes I know but I am not sure,,, the price seems to be more cheaper than in Lego site’s Pick a Brick. But when I look at the pieces, I can see the words below the pieces that says Location: (some country). So, does it mean if the location of the piece is not a country I am living in, it should be shipped from that location to the location I am living in? If so, it would be very expensive paying all those shipping money since the pieces are all in the different locations. So what I want to know is if we really should pay all the ship money? Thanks 🙂

The best way to shop on Bricklink is to create a wanted list. Once you have done that you can check which store has the parts, or most of the parts, that you want and select the seller who is closest to you. I myself rarely shop outside of my country because (as you correctly said) the shipping fees can really add up. The Wanted List feature of Bricklink is your best friend, so use it to your full advantage. 😉

John, I did not as of yet as BrickLink was sold and the new owner promised some pretty major changes. So I thought I wait it off until then. But it seems like the project is being delayed, so I may still do so. If you have any questions in the meantime feel free to ask. I’m both a buyer and seller on BrickLink.

I’m having an issue with my BrickLink store and I thought I might ask you. I am a new BrickLink seller – I just started last year. I closed it last this year and am trying to reopen it now. I cannot seem to do so and the BrickLink help pages did not tell me what I needed to know. Do you have any idea what I might be missing?

User profiles (and all information attached to that user profile) are also purged if not logged in for 6 months and have done none of the following:

Placed or received at least 1 order
Changed your username or a profile was merged into your username
Added at least 1 item to the catalog
Added at least 1 image small or large to the catalog
Added at least 1 inventory of an item to the catalog
Added at least 1 relationship to the catalog
Added at least 1 link to the links section
Added at least 1 inventory change request to the catalog
Added weight, dimensions or color code for at least 1 item in the catalog
Are an inventories verifier and verified at least 1 inventory
Sent any messages to other members through the contact form
Posted a message in our discussion forum and it is still there
Moved a discussion forum post and the message is still there
Are currently or have been before banned from Chat

If you have done any of the above, your user profile including your personal information cannot be deleted from the system.

Hi, I’m a novice who has never purchased from Brick link before. Some of the prices seem too good to be true for rare sets that I would love to buy for my children (sets excessively expensive on Amazon and Ebay. I keep thinking ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. Is there any guarantee of getting what you paid for via this site like on Amazon? Lots of Eastern European countries. Is someone out there able to tell me of lot’s of good experiences or are the reviews generally bad. Sorry to send this but, as you can tell, I’m a bit nervous!

Liz, Bricklink is the best place to buy LEGO. It is the largest LEGO marketplace. Kind of like eBay with many-many different sellers from all over the world. I have done over 800 transactions on BrickLink myself, both as a buyer and as a seller and never had a problem. Prices are usually cheaper on BrickLink because the platform itself charges significantly less fees to sellers than eBay or Amazon would, so sellers can afford to sell their inventory cheaper.

Having said that, just like in any marketplace, there are always some bad apples. However if you keep a few things in mind, you will be just fine shopping there. Many of these points I already mentioned in the article, but I will summarize them again for your convenience:

1. ALWAYS checke the seller’s feedback. If the person has at least 50 positive feedback with no negatives or neutrals you could be fairly certain that you will have a good experience. I would NEVER buy rare and expensive sets from a 0 feedback seller. Most of these are scammers (and BrickLink is very good at getting rid of them quickly, but sometimes you may still run into one), and even if they are legitimate, they likely don’t have enough experience of taking care of international orders. So stay safe, and buy from extablished sellers with lots of experience and good feedback.

2. ALWAYS read the terms and shipping policies of the seller. If you have questions email them. Some sellers may charge extra handling fees that can be quite high. Stay with sellers who charge exact shipping or a reasonable flat-rate shipping, and never more thatn $1 for handling.

3. ALWAYS pay with Paypal. DO NOT use bank transfers, money orders, cash, or any other method that doesn’t give you protection in case the transaction goes sour. Paypal will protect you if you report a scam seller timely.

BrickLink is a very friendly community with mostlky hobbyists like you and me. If you keep those points above in mind, you won’t get scammed. If you have questions or you are not certain about something you can ask them at the BrickLink forum. And if there is a specific store or item you are looking at and would like a second opinion, you can email me the link and I will take a look for you. Have fun shoppin’! 🙂

If shopping on bricklink are used sets typically unbuilt? It might be a silly question but I want to make sure if I am buying a used set that I’m going to actually be able to build it. I’m new to the whole buying used sets thing.

Nick, yes, LEGO sets on the secondary market typically come unassembled. It would be very difficult to ship a fully assembled set. Sometimes when you buy used LEGO some sections of a set may be partially still assembled, but this is very rare on BrickLink, more common on eBay, Craigslist, etc. BrickLink sellers are usually careful to ship sets that are nicely cleaned, packed and organized.

If you are buying a used set you can check with the seller to make sure the instructions are included. You can also buy instructions separately, and find downloadable instructions online for pretty much every LEGO set ever made. Make sure you check the seller’s feedback before you buy, and ask any questions (even pictures) before placing an order. Hope this helps some! 😉

Alvyn, in general lots refer to a collection of items that you must buy together to receive the listed price. So for example a minifigs that is part of a lot and the lot also includes accessories, then you must buy all the items in the lot. Or sometimes sellers put small pieces into groups of 10 or 20, so you must buy at least that many. However how you use lots also depends on where you see this information. Are you a buyer or a seller? Which page are you looking at where you have the question? That would narrow down how the information is used.

Be careful with Bricklink. There are a few very unscrupulous sellers on Bricklink that short change buyers and overcharge. Most sellers are honest and let you know if some parts are missing from the order, and give you a chance to add or change the order. Some sellers send the order and then tell you that some parts are missing. They then offer you a coupon instead of refunding immediately. Meanwhile you have chosen the parts to fit the shipping weight as close as possible to save money. Bricklink administration supports these sellers and sees no problem in having customers shortchanged and having to fight for their refunds. Bricklink is not 100% honest site, but 9 times out of 10 things will go good. When they don’t and you are a buyer, forget any kind of support. All the rules are slanted towards the sellers as Bricklink makes so much money from them. It’s all about money and not about service.

I believe Bricklink at it’s start was quite unique and subsequently grew to be a huge success and became huge benefit for Lego fans. I cannot dispute it’s worth within the community.
However, as a relatively new Lego enthusiast I have occasionally found myself on Bricklink’s pages (registered member) and have almost always clicked away.
It’s interface is old looking – like something from the mid to late 90’s. Pages are crowded and non-mobile friendly. And the business of committing to an order prior to having full knowledge of shipping costs completely puts me off.
It is so very useful and there’s no getting away from that. I wouldn’t want to. I’d just like to see the whole thing modernised and ordering speeded up through simplification.

Wayne, BrickLink has been making some significant changes starting last year to modernize the website and make it easier/friendlier to use, so you might want to give it another try. Before you can commit to an order now you can ask for an estimate. You fill up your cart like you normally would for an order, and then request a quote. Also, many sellers have detailed shipping charts, which you can check before placing an order. There are other changes coming as well, which you can read about at the BrickLink forum. The site is under new management, and they are dedicated to keeping BrickLink the best shopping site for LEGO pieces and retired sets. 🙂